As I started walking towards the town I checked what I had on me, first up was my wallet. Inside was a welcome surprise, my money and cards had been converted into the local equivalent. I now had 20 gold coins, 10 silver coins and 30 copper coins. While my ID was still an ID, it was a different kind. It was apparently written on vellum or something instead of plastic. On top of that, all my other cards had gone missing, probably because there were no alternate versions of them. Also, my wallet had changed from faux leather to real leather, which was just nice.

My backpack needed to wait till I could sit down somewhere to check it, but I could already tell it had changed just from the look of the straps. Finally I checked my clothes, nothing particularly crazy about them, shirt had just been changed from cotton to linen and a more neutral color, and the pants had leather plates stitched over the knees. I stopped my musing on the changes when a guard near the gate called out to me.

"Ho there, traveller!"

"Good day to you too." I replied.

He made a 'come over here' motion with his hand, probably needed to check me before I could enter.

"Need to see your ID and for you submit to a quick examiniation for contraband."

He pulled out some kind of glass sphere, the size of a ping pong ball and held his other hand out for me to put something in. I quickly gave him my new ID and he wove the sphere at me which glowed blue. He gave my card back after a quick glance and put the orb away.

"Everything seems to be in order, never heard of the town you were from before, but I'm not a cartographer. Anyway, welcome to Koral," he said with a flourish towards the town.

"Thank you, can you tell me about that sphere you used? I know it was for checking me somehow but where I'm from the guards had to do checks manually by opening a person's bag." I asked.

"No problem, it was a small Detection orb that is pre-set to scan for certain items and materials, it glows red if those items are within 10 meters of it, the fact it glowed blue means it could not find any." He explained.

Hmm, "Interesting, one last question, which way to the inn?"

"Head up the road, take the third right and it should be on the left after a bit," he said while pointing up the road.

"Thanks again, see you later, maybe." I gave him a smile and with a wave goodbye I started walking down the road once more, and began looking around at the buildings. Most seemed to be made of wood as expected but some looked like they were made of solid stone that was carved into the shape of a house, if I had to guess I would say some kind of stone manipulation magic merged the rock into shape. The biggest stone building I passed was the blacksmith, it had an open front and stone of the forge itself is fused brick.

I turned down the third right and saw what was obviously the inn, the sign had a bed on it. Across the street must be the adventurers guild, it had a sword hitting some kind of creature as its sign, as well as some extremely well armed individuals standing around in front of it talking to eachother. I'll check it out later, needed to get something to eat right now, so I went to the inn first.

Inside it seemed pretty normal, except the light source for the room was a crystal attached to a chain on the ceiling, it glowed bright white and it seemed the tables under it were the most popular. I headed for the counter and waited for someone to come by, seemed it was relatively busy at the moment. After a minute or two of waiting one of the men behind the counter noticed me and came over.

"What are you looking for stranger?" He asked while leaning on the counter.

"For the moment I need some food, and maybe a room for the night."

"It's five coppers for the food and a silver for a private room, and before you ask it is high because most of the people that stay here are those adventurous types that make good money. You can also sleep in the bunk room with everyone else for only ten copper," he said while holding out a hand.

I handed him five coppers and a silver and the man walked into the back room. I really wanted some privacy when I slept at the moment. A minute later the man came back with a bowl of stew and a key.

"You get room twenty-four, that means room four on the second floor. Also, you can sit anywhere while you eat but I suggest being near the crystal, not only does it make a great light but it also has a soothing effect that helps you relax." He pointed towards the crystal.

"Thanks, I'll see if I can." I took the bowl of stew and checked if there were any open seats near the crystal, unfortunantly it appeared those were full up so I instead grabbed one of the corner of the room tables. Nothing happened while sitting there, and I started to wonder how god would get me into a situation that made it clear what I had to do. Nothing had happened today that seemed like an obvious encounter.

I finished my stew and put the empty bowl back on the counter, then headed across the street to the guild. Inside, there were a lot more of those well armed individuals. A few looked over at me when I entered but no one decided to really have any problem with me so they turned back to whatever they were doing. I walked up to the desk and saw there was a woman behind the counter, she looked pretty enough but I don't really feel like it's a 'fated encounter'. God said I'd know it when I saw it and this wasn't it, I called her over.

"Hi, I'd like to apply for the guild."

"Of course sir, I just need your basic status information, name, class, and level." She said while taking out a form.

"Name, Kadi Janson. Class, none. Level, zero."

I think I said something absurd as she just stopped writing and gaped at me for a couple seconds.

"How the hell did you get here without being horrifically killed by monsters or those demon ants?!" She exclaimed.

Damn, she's right, why the hell did I think coming here without a class would be good idea? Probably because I just figured god would take care of it and I was too excited to think about it. Ugh, now I need to think of a story that she can't get the guard to disprove because he saw me walking up alone, but he probably thought I was just strong enough to handle being alone. Uhhh....

"Just lucky I guess. I never ran into anything that wanted me dead." I told her.

"Well, getting lucky once is reasonable enough, but I'm writing a note for the guards that you are not to be let out until the next caravan heading for Merriat comes through. You will be protected by the caravan guards and when you get there you can use the class temple and get something. Now I suggest you find a civilian job until that happens." She pointed towards the door.

"Yes ma'am," I gave her a nod.

I turned around and started walking for the door when suddenly there was the loud BONG of some kind of bell. All the adventurers around me suddenly jumped up and listened. There were two more bongs and after a second of nothing the adventurers all rushed out the door. I hurried out as well and looked where they were going, I saw it easily enough. If I took a left insead of right I would have noticed the gaping hole in the wall, it was obviously unfinished rather then destroyed, and coming out of the forest seemed to be a swarm of humanoids with 4 arms and black armor.

I started jogging down the road to get a better look, and once I got close enough I see that they all have very primitive weapons, clubs and sharp sticks instead of anything serious. Then the fighting began between the armored people and the guards and adventurers. Once one of the black armors is slashed and yellow blood comes out I finally figured it out. Those must be the demon ants, a swarm monster smart enough to use basic tools. If they were a little smarter they would probably be a lot more dangerous with real weapons and tactics.

I waited out of range of the battle on the road, it was fairly one sided, the ants may have numbers but they just had no tactics and their weapons didn't do much damage. But as I watched them I noticed something odd, the ants were not going for the chest or head just the limbs. I even noticed one stop their attack mid swing to avoid hitting someone in the skull, that must mean they want something other then to kill everyone, but what?

The battle was over in minutes, looked like ten of the ants were left when they retreated back into the forest. The adventurers started heading back up the road while the guards began dragging the bodies into a pile. I got out of the road and asked the nearest civilian.

"So what's the deal with the ants?"

"Demon Ants, and what do mean?" He grumbled.

"I mean, I'm a traveller and I've never seen demon ants before."

He looks at me incredulously "how the hell have you... nevermind. Okay, so the demon ants have been a thorn in our side for years but only in the last month the attacks have actually gotten dangerous. Is why the mayor hired some earth mages to build the wall." He gestured to the wall, "The Demon Ants can climb smooth stone but they need to drop their weapons and use all six of their limbs at once, so the wall will weaken them and make it easier to keep them under control."

"I didn't mean something that specific, I meant I have never seen them before, ever."

"What do I look like, a monster encyclopedia? Go to the library for that."

"Right, sorry. I'll go now."

Haaaa, well that was something, guess I should explore the town for now, maybe find a place to work as a temp. I headed off down the road and kept an eye out for anything of interest.